wen. then, i house hearing focused on the federal government's response to white supremacy and of violence. later, cory booker is interviewed by a podcast in iowa as part of their series of interviews with 2020 presidential candidates. susan: joining us on "newsmakers" this week from baltimore is dr. leana wen, the new president and ceo of planned parenthood, been in that role since november of last year. she is the first female physician to be in that role and the first physician in more than 50 years for the organization, which has 600 centers nationally and last year reported revenues of $1.7 billion. dr. wen, thank you for being our guest this week. i wanted to tell people that in addition to your busy role with planned parenthood, you still provide patient care and are still teaching, so a very full agenda for you. let me introduce the two

reporters who cover planned parenthood's issues, who will be asking questions this week. jennifer haberkorn of the los angeles times is a congressional reporter, and kimberly leonard, washington examiner senior healthcare policy reporter. jennifer, you are up first with questions. jennifer: dr. wen, thanks for joining us. i wanted to start with breaking news this week. joe biden, the former vice president and democratic front runner for the 2020 primary, first said he supports the hyde amendment, the longtime ban on federal funding for abortions, then he said he opposes it, which matches the democratic party platform. what do you make of his movement and where he landed in opposition of the policy? do you view that is genuine, and you have trust in it right now? dr. wen: i think former vice president biden is listening to the will of the people. there was just a poll released that showed that 77% of

americans support roe v. wade as the law of the land. and we know that the hyde amendment is a hugely discriminatory policy. it is discriminatory against people with low incomes and also discriminates against abortion care. it treats it as something different than any other aspect of medical care. medical care is reimbursed, so to say that one aspect of care is not is stigmatizing to that. so vice president biden is listening to the will of the people, he is seeing the work that we in planned parenthood have championed, following the footsteps of reproductive justice leaders who have long wanted to repeal this discriminatory and dangerous policy for women's health.

jennifer: do you think he was out of touch? last time he was in the senate, 2007, hyde was a relatively accepted policy for both republicans and democrats. do you feel he is confident in his is is an against the hyde amendment, considering the flip-flop happened in the course of 36 hours? dr. wen: well, i take him at his word that he has heard the will of the people. and it is also our expectation as the planned parenthood action fund that all candidates would be supporting the right to safe legal abortion and would regard abortion care to be the standard medical care that it is, and would support repealing the hyde amendment and would be in favor of policies that further reduce barriers to care that bend the arc of our universe away from justice. kimberly: dr. wen, kimberly

leonard talking here. biden changed his position, but another democrat, louisiana governor john bel edwards, recently signed an abortion ban into law in his state. we know he is up for reelection. should the democratic party refused to support any candidates that don't fully support abortion rights? dr. wen: this bill that was signed in louisiana bans abortions at six weeks, when many women don't even know they are pregnant at that point. and i know that the cost of banning abortions is not going to stop abortions, but it will stop safe, legal abortions. and if you are a person of privilege, you can fly somewhere else and get this medical procedure. but if you are a person with low income who lives in a geographically-isolated area that already faces barriers to care, you are the one hurt the most.

that is the human impact of this bill that was passed and signed into law in louisiana. by the way, louisiana, just like many states that have signed these extreme bans on abortion care, they are the same states that already faces some of the greatest health care challenges, with very high infant mortality, high maternal mortality, great disparity between black-and-white infant and maternal mortality, and this is not what politicians should be doing. instead of taking away access to care, they should be looking to expand it in every way. we in the planned parenthood action fund and our 13 million supporters leading up to 2020 and beyond will be mobilizing, educating, organizing, and we will make it clear to the american people about who is there to protect us and our care, and who is there to take it away, who is there to ensure

our children grow up in a world where they have more rights than we do, not fewer. and we know the american people are paying attention, that people are outraged. this is not a partisan issue. this is not a political issue. this is about our lives and our fundamental freedom. kimberly: should democrats refuse to support candidates that don't support the values you just put forward? dr. wen: i don't think this is about democrats or republicans. we would not want any of our elected officials in any way or any candidates to support policies that would take away people's access to health care, that would worsen health outcomes, that widens the disparities already pervasive within health. i want to say this because it is an important point you make about the politics involved here. look, we are not the ones that

have made abortion care political. the patients who come to planned parenthood seeking safe, legal abortions, seeking birth tests, breast and cervical cancer screenings, they are looking to obtain basic health care. and for so many of the people we serve, we are their only source of health care. they are not looking to make a political statement. but when others have made health care political, it is our duty and our obligation to also fight back with everything that we have, because this is about protecting our patients and the people we serve. jennifer: planned parenthood was a major player in the 2016 election. in theplan to endorse democratic primary in 2020 and if so, what are the characteristics you are going to put the most emphasis on, assuming all democratic contenders support abortion rights, and at this point seem to support ending the hyde amendment?

dr. wen: the planned parenthood action fund, of which i am president, i am all president of the planned parenthood association of america, and i'm wearing my hat now as the president of the action fund, we know that while our c3 side provides health care, our c4 work in protecting access to care and defending access to that care, is essential to our very survival, to our patients' survival. and as such, we are very engaged in advocacy and political work. we see this time that we are in as being more important now than ever. this year anti-women's health politicians have introduced over 300 bills in 47 states.

there are bans that are so extreme, as in the case of alabama, that forbid abortion any time in pregnancy with no exception for rape or incessant, cest, and that put doctors who provide abortion care in jail for up to 99 years, a life sentence. a longer sentence than a rapist would get. these are the times that we are in. and we at the planned parenthood action fund are fighting back with everything that we have, and planned parenthood, through the courts, through the legislatures, through our supporters, and we encourage everybody to support us and join us in this fight. we recently worked with a number of organizations in the national day of action that had hundreds of thousands of supporters in over 500 cities around the entry , showing the country up to speak very clearly on our expectations of our elected leaders.

here is our expectation as the planned parenthood action fund, that anyone who seeks to represent us must listen to the will of the people. jennifer: do you plan to endorse in the 2020 primary? dr. wen: the work that we do now is to protect access to health care and to support candidates who will stand up for the will of the people. and we are looking into all options for endorsements. we certainly plan on endorsing in general in 2020. by the way, in 2018, 80% of the planned parenthood action fund endorsed candidates won in their races, and we will turn out our voters in 2020 so it makes the wave and 2018 look like nothing ripple.n a

jennifer: so it sounds like for the primary, you are not insured at this point that you will endorse? dr. wen: we have so many exceptional candidates, it's too early for us to say about endorsements. but our expectation is that every candidate will stand strongly with us to protect the right to safe, legal abortion access and who will speak with us, with one voice, that abortion care is health care and health care is a fundamental human right. >> the public is still very divided on abortion. you mentioned earlier during this interview there is broad support for not overturning roe v. wade, but also that same poll showed the largest plurality of voters in that area also support more restrictions on abortion. different polling depends on how it is asked, but it suggests in general people don't want to see an outright ban on abortion but also want to see some restrictions.

can you explain why planned parenthood's position is to advocate for broad access for abortion, given the public is so divided on the issue? dr. wen: it is important when we are looking at polling data to step back for a moment and think about who we are talking about here. we are talking about women, people, patients who have abortion care for all kinds of reasons. and i have treated women who have had abortions because their health or their life is in danger. i have treated women who found out they had an un-survivable, serious fetal anomaly. i have treated women who wanted to finish their education, who were not in the right stage of their life that they could become a parent. and my job as a doctor is not to stigmatize and judge my patients. my job as a doctor is to empower my patients to make the best

decisions for themselves. and my job as a doctor is also to recognize the overwhelming public health evidence that we need to focus on providing access to preventive care, sex education, affordable birth control. we are at an all-time low for unintended pregnancy and the need for abortions because of all these other services and prevention that we offer. and i hope we can center the woman and also center the goals that we have together in focusing on invention and ensuring everybody has access to the full range of reproductive health care, including abortion care. >> turning back to the hyde amendment, this is part of a

federal spending bill that is passed every year and a lot of other health care programs are at stake if the spending bill does not get passed. do you want democrats to vote no on the spending bills if the hyde amendment, the federal restriction on funding abortion, is attached to it? or do you think we are not quite there yet? dr. wen: a lot has changed, even in the last few weeks, and we have seen how much outrage there s thatut the extreme ban are happening, and we are also seeing that the american people recognize that the threat to roe v. wade is not a hypothetical. we saw a week ago that missouri almost became the first state in the country that went dark, with no abortion access in almost 50 years. and more than one million women

of reproductive age in missouri would have no place to seek care in their state. that hammered in that the threat to roe is real, and with kavanaugh on the courts, if any of these cases are taken, 25 million could be living in a state where abortion is outlawed. the times we are in indicate clearly that we are in a state of emergency for women's health, that this is a public health crisis, so we hope our lawmakers who were elected to represented the will of the people will see this and will fight for us on all fronts to repeal the hyde amendment and ensure passage of the women's health protection act, another way to get past these arable state laws that are being passed, to vote for a resolution that would protect roe v. wade and stop the

criminalization of women and doctors, and also to protect title x. the trump administration has issued a gag rule on title x, our nation's program for affordable birth control and reproductive health care, that 4 million people in the country depend on for cancer screening, hiv tests and birth control. and we hope there will be energy momentum from across the country to ensure that title x as a program stays, and that politicians are not gagging and not preventing health care professionals from giving our patients all the options they need to make the best decisions for themselves. >> should democrats consider letting the government shut down to get at the question of the hyde amendment? if it becomes a dispute over the hyde amendment in the spending bill this year, is it worth

shutting down the government over? dr. wen: i can speak as a doctor and the person who is running a national healthcare organization that serves our patients. our patients face so many barriers to care, and every time a new barrier is put up, the people most affected are those who are the most disadvantaged. the hyde amendment is also something that is one more thing that, one more bad policy that specifically stigmatizes and treats reproductive health care in a different category than the rest of health care. it is time for our lawmakers to take a bold stance on the hyde amendment, on title x and on all these issues that are facing americans. one in four women in america will have an abortion in our

lifetimes, and it is critical for us to recognize abortion care as the standard care that it is, which is what we elected our public officials to do. >> you mentioned the supreme court. there are several abortion-related lawsuits in states across the country. several cases could get to the supreme court in the next few years. can you talk me through what cases you are following most closely? which are you most concerned could reopen the debate around roe v. wade? and is there anything you can do if a case were to get to the supreme court? are you but hold into what those nine justices may decide? is there any strategy you can do? dr. wen: i'm glad you brought up this question because it is something i think about every day, it is the nightmare that we in planned parenthood are preparing for every day. i came from the world of public

health, where there are natural disasters, disease outbreaks that we prepared for. well, this is an emergency in the public health crisis, but it is man-made. there are 16 cases right now that are one step away from the supreme court, and any of them being heard could lead to roe v. wade being further chipped away or being completely overturned. and what we are focused on now is fighting through the courts, working with our legislatures in states, and on the federal level, to ensure other types of protections for roe versus wade. this year there have been terrible bills passed, but we have also seen bills passed by our champions in vermont, new york, illinois, nevada, that codify roe v. wade in some cases and also in some cases extend reproductive rights to be the human rights that they are to protect women and doctors from criminalization and jail time

for seeking health care. that is the kind of work we are focused on, proactive protective legislation where we can in the states and in the federal government. and we in the planned parenthood action fund look to every candidate in every office to secure our fundamental rights and freedoms, including reproductive health care which is health care. >> another thing that happened this week is the trump administration announced government scientists could no longer acquire fetal tissue donated after an abortion for the use of medical research. is planned parenthood planning to challenge that decision? is there anything else you can do? what are the next steps? dr. wen: we need to listen to the voices of medical scientists and doctors who have spoken very clearly that what the trump

administration is doing, and their entire agenda has been obstructing science, preventing medical discoveries that could save lives, and also turning the clock back on progress. we are on the right side of history. we are on the side of providing more health care, not less. we are on the side of securing more freedoms, not fewer. we are on the side of listening to the doctors, the scientists, who are doing work every day trying to save lives and protect people, and that is the work planned parenthood has always done, in both providing exceptional health care as well as fighting to protect access to that care. >> we mentioned this briefly earlier. sederal states have pas

restrictions on abortion this year that do not include rape and incest. this is relatively new in terms of what republican-led states have done in their abortion restrictions. what do you talk that up to? it seems like it is moving further in the direction of prohibiting abortion than what we have seen in the past. dr. wen: we should listen to the voices of those who actually introduced these horrific pieces of legislation. the person who introduced the legislation in alabama specifically said that the intention is to reach the supreme court to overturn roe v. wade. and that actually showed a real intention, because for so many years anti-women's health politicians had been using lies, saying their real intention is to protect women, protect health, protect patient safety, and in the process adding layer upon layer of unnecessary regulation that only serves to take away health care. but now, their true intentions are clear.

and it is time for the american people to rise up as we are doing to see through what these politicians are doing this entire time. the american people are very clear that we do not want the government, the politicians, to be involved in personal, individual medical decision-making. >> one of the biggest divides with abortion rights, both for and against, comes down to a fundamental disagreement about when life begins. you have people who say it begins at conception, you have people that say it begins when a baby takes its first breath. what is planned parenthood's position on when life begins? dr. wen: there is no medical or scientific consensus on this issue. planned parenthood believes everyone needs to be empowered to make the best decisions for

themselves and their health care. we are a health care provider and we treat patients who are in very difficult circumstances, and it is not our job to judge them for the choices that they make that are the best for their health, for their families, and we certainly believe that no politician should be imposing their values or their views on the patients that we serve. >> you had a question on statistics from "the washington post?" >> a washington post story talked about how many women died due to not getting care and time and planned parenthood came under fire for some statistics.

i wanted to see what those numbers might be especially as the debate over abortion is heated right now? dr. wen: i'm a public health expert and i know from public health that often data are not possible to obtain. before roe v. wade when women were criminalized, doctors were criminalized, we don't have that data to show exactly how many women died because they didn't have access to safe, legal abortions. but is that really the point? is it saying that, if 100 women died it's not a big deal, but if 1000 women died, it's a big deal? we need to value women's lives and stop stigmatizing one aspect of health care and using that as a way to perpetuate oppression and misogyny. >> thank you for joining us for "newsmakers" this week. let's go back to the surveys.

came out this week and it digs deeply into the divide, which was not gender-based but very deeply party-based. what was interesting about the numbers is the huge dichotomy between democratic women and republican women on this issue, more so than even democratic men and republican men. what does this do for the debate in 2020? >> it is interesting because if you look at what politicians are running on, it is specifically along the lines of, if you are a republican you are running on reducing access to abortion and if you are democrat you are looking at broadening access and we have even seen joe biden change his stance. it is hard to tell at this point with the polling. i don't see a lot of good polling on the hyde amendment for example, and whether there is support for government funding and abortions in every

case they occur, especially among poor women. so the debate is going to be very telling to see to what extent voters are on board with strict limitations republicans are putting on abortion, versus broadening access the democrats are putting on it. and while most people fall in the middle, it might make it difficult for them to decide who to vote for. >> the first democratic debate is at the end of the month and this will definitely be a topic, especially with joe biden changing his position on this issue. how do you see it evolving in the democratic party and the republican party? jennifer: most voters are in the middle. they think abortion should be legal but not in all circumstances, and the parties are further on the extremes. the republican party in the house does not have a single member willing to cross the aisle on abortion.

those last members left in the last congress. they are gone. and even in the senate they are pretty much, they are on the endangered-species list. we are seeing that also in the 2020 field. if joe biden was the last person in the middle, he has moved, he has moved on the hyde issue. i don't think there is room for a politician to be in the middle, which is crazy because that is where most voters are. donald trump has signaled he is willing to go there on abortion. he was the first presidential candidate to say that he would support, appoint supreme court justices who are pro-life. it was not that way in previous years. you would never admit to a litmus test for your supreme court justices. now we are seeing democrats willing to do the same. >> the repeal of the hyde amendment, democrats have

control of the house. are they likely to pursue it? kimberly: it is not in the current bill. abortion rights supporters have been hesitant to criticize that fact. i think they understand the politics, but in light of all the different bans in different states, the supreme court being more conservative, they are going to be under pressure to make this an issue to signal to voters exactly what they can expect in 2020. >> where is nancy pelosi on this? >> she, like a lot of other democrats, have voted for bills with the hyde amendment in them for years. there is no sign she has changed her mind or signaled the house won't pass a spending bill with the hyde language in there. it is hard to see democrats putting their foot down when some of the moderate democrats may not be willing to do so.

host: does the policy debate go beyond abortion to include contraception, research and other issues you brought up? are opponents and proponents coming at this from various policy levels? kimberly: they definitely are. people who are not in washington say, why can't everyone come together and get behind brought access to contraception and sex education because that would reduce the number of unintended pregnancies and therefore abortions. both sides are very divided. a lot of antiabortion organizations that are antiabortion are also against certain kinds of contraception. other abortion groups are against all kinds of contraception. it's hard to find that balance where this is all going to be. jennifer: there was a debate a couple of years ago about whether the affordable care act should have a requirement that employers provide contraception in their health plans.

that went before the supreme court of strongly divided the party. it has a way of seeping into any other issue that involves health care. host: one guarantee is that we are going to be talking a lot about this into the 2020 election. thank you. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2019] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] live today at 3:00 p.m. eastern, democratic presidential candidates at the hall of fame celebration in cedar rapids. speakers include kirsten gillibrand, kamala harris, amy klobuchar and elizabeth warren. coverage in iowa today on c-span. orch anytime at c-span.org listen with the free c-span radio app. livere is a look at our

coverage monday. on c-span, the house gavels in for several homeland security with at 2:00 p.m. eastern votes and speeches at 6:30. talkspan2, adam smith about the 2020 defense department budget. at 3:00, the senate returns to continue work on a judicial nomination for the position on the court of federal claims. on c-span3, the house judiciary committee against a series of hearings on the mueller report. there will be testimony on lessons learned from past -- a house rules committee votes on a resolution that authorizes judiciary committee chair jerrold nadler to pursue subpoenas for attorney general william barr's former white house counsel don mckinnon. and house subcommittee

civil liberties held a meeting on white supremacy and related violence. officials from the fbi and department of homeland security testified at the nearly three hour hearing on classifying hate crimes and domestic terrorism, as well as explaining why some crimes might not be classified as either. >> without objection the chair is authorized to declare a recess. we are convening the second in a series of hearings confronting white supremacy will be focused on adequacy of the federal response and i recognize myself now for five minutes to make an opening statement. i want to welcome members, witnesses and many guests in the audience to our second hearing on the deadly serious topic of